Duke of Edinburgh
6th October 2016
All 41 students from Melbourn Village College who took part in the Duke of Edinburgh assessed expedition at the weekend have passed that part of the Bronze award.
The Year 11 group, plus staff volunteer Arwen Spicer, travelled to the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire for two days of hiking around the hills and fields.
It was a lot warmer than their practice expedition in March, but the weather on the Saturday was not too kind and students were resigned to walking through a near constant drizzle with the occasional burst of welcome sunshine.
Some were even lucky enough to arrive at the second campsite on Saturday evening and put their tents up during a dry spell. A fault with the campsite toilets resulted in the site’s sports centre being opened up for us, and the issue was then convincing them that sleeping in that gloriously heating building was not an option; however, it did provide a welcome relief to our slightly damp teams for a brief period of time.
Mrs Spicer said: “I am really proud of them all, especially the way they kept their spirits up despite fighting to put already wet tents up in the rain on Saturday evening. The way they rallied around the last MVC team to arrive was truly fantastic – they set up a welcoming committee at the entrance so they couldn’t miss it in the dark, and then helped them set up tents and started the water boiling for hot food and drinks. It was wonderful to witness, they did themselves and MVC proud.”
Sunday turned into a glorious day; luckily a cool breeze keeping the students from overheating whilst carrying their large packs around the countryside.
As always the students arrived at the end point with great relief, and were rightly very proud of themselves for surviving such a challenging weekend. At all times they conducted themselves with respect for their environs and the local people, demonstrated a fantastic team spirit and showed themselves to be a real credit to Melbourn Village College.
Many thanks are owed to Melbourn’s Cam Academy Trust partners, Comberton Village College, who take the lead in organising the expeditions and the DofE programme as a whole, allowing all MVC students who wish to take part to do so.
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